The On Deck Circle

Welcome to week two, in which we find out who will be joining Team U.S. coached by Dan Henderson.

Right away team U.S. looks foolish in comparison with Team U.K. when Jason Pierce faints during Dana’s initial speech. This wasn’t the result of simple overwhelming excitement; Pierce had just cut down from 180lbs to 169lbs.

Christian Fulgium is forced to quit before he even gets near the octagon when he is unable to make weight, which Dana kindly lets him know he will regret forever.

However the most unfortunate setback is for David Shackleford, who has a herpes legion on his forehead and is sent home by the doctor.

The fights begin once Dana White gives a final angry and bewildered speech about not being prepared and how hungry the U.K. guys are.

First up is Mark Miller (10-4) against his training partner Kevin Knabjian (10-3-1). Round one is spent on the feet with Mark as the aggressor but with little damage done. Round 2 however sees Kevin come out strong and drop Mark. Following him to the ground he is unable to finish Mark, who stands and unloads with forward moving combinations until the ref is forced to stop the fight.

Mark seems like a good guy, and apologizes to Kevin after the fight, which Dana and Dan are a bit entertained by. Mark however is so disappointed that he punches a hole in the wall of the dressing room.

Our next fight saw Richie Wilson (4-0) submit Paul Bird (4-1) with a rear naked choke in the first round. Dan Henderson described Richie as scrappy and I can’t think of anything better. I was glad to see Richie, a humble and excited fighter, ensure that I don’t have to listen to Paul Bird talk on a weekly basis about hurting people legally inside the cage.

Up next we saw Santino Defranco (13-4) turtle for most of the 1^st round while Sean Sherk look-a-like Waylon Lowe (5-2) peppered him with shots to the body and head. Due to a lack of real damage Santino made it to the second round, where he came out with a beautiful flying knee to the jaw followed by a rear naked choke, submitting Waylon in less than a minute.

The amazing story behind Santino is that he made it onto the second season of The Ultimate Fighter. However during the medical exam they discovered a brain aneurysm. Santino had it removed, has since been medically cleared and now gets his shot at the UFC. He should be an interesting guy to watch.

Due to the weight (and herpes) problems at the start of the show, we get two montage fights. Lucky us. The first saw Jason Pierce (6-0) win a decision against Berger, while the second saw Tom Hayden (2-0) submitted when Cameron Dollar (2-1) slid out from under him and transitioned into a smooth rear naked choke.

The final fight was Damarques Johnson (9-6) vs Ray Elbe (20-11). Elbe has been training his Muay Thai in Thailand for the past three years and was doing well on his feet when he attempted a takedown and landed with Johnson in the mount. From there Johnson unloaded with big punches and bigger elbows, splitting Elbe under the eye and gaining a TKO by referee stoppage.

With the episode coming to an end there were still only 6 members of Team U.S. and it was announced that the two remaining guys would still fight their way into the house. So next week we will see Kyle Reid vs Frankie Lester and Jason Dent vs Rob Browning. That’s right… Browning, Rob is Junie’s little brother and the preview for next week makes it clear that he is as big a fool inside the house. Let’s all hope Jason Dent has some skills.

That is all this week folks, but follow me on twitter throughout the week for some random MMA opinions and news, all kept to an ADD (or ADHD) friendly 140 letter limit.